


A Changing Tide

by BottledBoneHunter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Eventually a few non Voltron Characters will appear, Fantasy AU, I had needs and they filled those needs, M/M, Magic, Malazan AU, but they won't be a major point of the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-17
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-12-21 05:50:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21069923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BottledBoneHunter/pseuds/BottledBoneHunter
Summary: The Kingdom of Altea is an ever growing, ever hungry society ruled by the Purest of Alteans. The groups of peoples and races who were long ago swallowed into Altean society have been given high status and now see themselves comfortably pocketed within Altea's nobility, high, middle, and commanding classes.  Those who have been recently acquired into the fold make up the nations indebted and destitute, a fate that seems to await any whom the Alteans turn their sights on, for they have yet to ever loose a war against an enemy.  The Galra to the North West have remained, thus far, safe, managing generation after generation to keep pacts of peace with the Alteans, treaties guaranteeing a truce between the two kingdoms. With King Alfor, newly appointed King of Altea, and Emperor Zarkon, nothing seems as if it is going to change between the two. But ancient forces are beginning to mobilize, forces which have their own plans for the Galra and the Kingdom of Altea, and with it will come the shattering of that long held peace.





	A Changing Tide

There were three things in life that Lance McClain was absolutely sure of. One, if you were not born a 'Pure or Natural Altean', whatever that meant, then life was not going to be kind. Two, Alteans played dirty, and therefore there was no moral dilemma when it came to stealing from them, at least not as far as he was concerned. And the third thing...well...he grinned as he slipped silently into the dark room, the silver light from the moon illuminating just enough for him to see the layout of the furniture.

'Like stealing from a baby...' he thought as he soundlessly made his way across the room. Moving without sound was something Lance had discovered he could do if he concentrated. It was a skill that certainly came in handy in this line of work. Reaching the door, he placed his ear to the wood, listening. He closed his eyes and focused, concentrating on what lie in the quite house beyond. After a few ticks he finally heard it, the steady rise and fall of breathing coming from the guard stationed in the hallway, the slow rhythm of his beating heart suddenly sounding so very loud in the silence that surrounded him. Lance honed in on those sounds, and in his mind he could almost see the guard standing bored at the far end of the hallway, leaning heavily against a spear.

'You need to take a piss...so badly it can't wait a moment longer. You don't have time to get any of your comrades to take your place at that door, your bladder is gonna burst if you don't go _now._' he thought, his brows knitting in a frown. From the hallway came a surprised grunt, followed by quick footsteps and softly clanking armor. Once the sounds faded, Lance very slowly and quietly opened the door. Double checking to make sure the coast was actually clear, he then slipped out into the dark corridor and hastily made his way to the door the other man had just moments before been guarding. He reached for the handle, then paused. He could feel the protective ward, pulsing like a thing alive, waiting for someone who was unsuspecting to make contact with that handle. Lance didn't know why, but he had always been able to feel these things. Before passing, his grandmother had told him he had been born with 'the Gift', but not as it was commonly used now. What he had was older, she had said. More Pure. Whatever that meant. He had been a hungry, starving child, and found he'd rather be picking the pockets of unaware Alteans than listening to words he didn't understand from his ancient grandmother. A large part of him regretted that now, but whatever it was he had, pure or not, it certainly always came in handy during a job.

Tentatively, he probed the ward with his mind, testing it, feeling it's...flavor. That was the best way he could describe it when talking about these things with his best friend Hunk. Quiznack! He winced at the sudden thought of his friend. Hunk was probably worried sick about him right now! This was taking much longer than he had first expected, and Hunk always worried himself sick when Lance was late in returning home.

"Okay...Gotcha!" he whispered when he finally recognized the flavor of this particular ward. To undo this one he'd have to...he frowned, searching within himself for the necessary counter. Beads of sweat began to form on his forehead, dampening his hair. The guard would be returning any moment now, he needed to-he grinned as he physically felt the protective magic click before it dissipated, and without a moments hesitation he slipped into the room. 'Just in time,' he thought, exhaling a shaky breath as he listened to the soft footsteps of the returning guard. That was a close one. Too close, as Hunk would say. Rolling his shoulders to try and ease some of the tension that had built in them while he had removed the ward, he stepped forward into the room, heading to a tall bookcase on his right. If his information was correct, and it always was, then the vault was hidden behind the bookshelf, cleverly hidden in plain sight. He had to dispel another ward before he could pull back the book that would open the vault. Once he had overcome that obstacle, harder than the one on the door but not impossible by any means, he reached out a hand and began to pull. As he did so, he focused his attention on the family's dog, asleep in the yard below. Within seconds, the dog began barking at some imaginary offense, and at the moment Lance opened the secret door to the vault. The sound of the barking dog distracted from the slight noise the hidden door made as it swung inward.

Lance's breath caught in his throat, his eyes widening, the gold coins stacked before him reflected in his gaze, illuminated by some magical source. The third thing in life of which Lance McClain was certain, was that come morning, he and Hunk would be much, much wealthier.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really sorry that I suck hard core at both descriptions and names for stories. Yeeeaaaah. But anyway, this story is based off of the book 'Midnight Tides' from the Malazan book of the Fallen. While re-reading the series, I began to notice that a certain character in it really reaaaalllly made me think of Shiro, and my wife and I began brainstorming about how we could make a Malazan AU rp that fit the Voltron characters. We already have delved pretty deep into a Malazan RP using other characters and pairings we love, but the beauty of the Malazan books, if you haven't read them, is that the world is just as vast as our own, in fact I would say much vaster even, and Midnight Tides takes place in a whole different continent not yet explored by the books and therefore not yet explored by our previous Role Playing and other characters. So it left the door wide open for me to perhaps turn our RP into a fic as well, one that wouldn't be littered with characters left and right from all our favorite shows. It will be consistent with Voltron characters, with a few exceptions. As I mentioned in the tags, there will be some non Voltron characters showing up for some roles that, during our RP, we found were well fitted for the characters we placed there. But don't worry, they won't play a major roll in the story so I'm not going to include that fandom in my tags, because I feel it would be meaningless. Anywho, I hope you enjoy this, at least a little! As always, a huuuuge thank you to all who stop by and read this, leave Kudos, and an especially huge thank you to anyone who leaves a comment. 
> 
> Also, before I forget, I don't have a Beta, I wouldn't even know where to begin to look for one so I apologize for any errors, they are all my own. My chapters will probably also all be pretty small in size, because I write them all by hand first, and if I tried to make them longer I'd probably tire myself out and then never finish the damn thing.


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